Car Rental Valencia
Hiring a car is one of the best ways to explore Valencia. Let Carhirespain.net help you to find the best value car hire for your Spanish adventure. We can put you into a smart city compact or the luxury car of your dreams. Carhirespain.net is the most effective way to save on Car hire in Valencia.
Use our car hire policy search feature to find the right car for a week of shopping and sightseeing or to tour Valencia’s historical countryside. Choose the best fuel policy for your plans, or opt for unlimited mileage.
It is up to you. You can have both if you want.
Carhirespain.net does all the research so you can make the car hire decisions that satisfy your dreams and your budget.
You can cancel your rental car reservation up to 24 hours before your pickup time if your plans change.
Valencia
València is on the southeastern Spanish coast. It is right in the centre of the Gulf of Valencia at the mouth of the river Turia. Its Mediterranean shores have slowly moulded the city’s unique character over centuries.
This is the perfect place for you to begin your exploration of the rest of Spain.
You can get to Madrid in an hour and a half by train, or slightly longer in a hire car. The drive to Barcelona takes three hours. Most importantly perhaps, the Balearic Islands of Ibiza, Mallorca and Menorca are just a stone’s throw away by plane or boat. If the islands are not your thing, Alicante, Gandia and Benidorm are only two hours down the road as the hire car flies.
Valencia really is the centre of it all.
Valencia is home to miles of shining sand beaches. Its main beach Valencia La Malvarrosa beach is 15 minutes away in a hire car. This vast, sparkling, blue-flag beach offers room to relax, and it is just one of many along Valencia’s Mediterranean coast.
If you have had enough of the beach, try some history and culture. Valencia’s Old Town is bursting with street art, cafés and architecture. Wander through the maze of old cobbled alleys and backstreets to escape the tourist trail or just hang out in her quaint squares, small churches or quirky art cafés.
Food in Valencia
As if you needed another reason to visit Valencia, it is the birthplace of Spain’s legendary Paella. You can explore the city’s many authentic paella restaurants to get a real taste of Paella Valenciana. It’s not like anything called paella you have ever eaten before.
If you are a foodie, don’t stop at authentic paella. The best place to buy fresh produce is in one of Valencia’s many fresh markets. The Central Market in the heart of the Old Town is the one to visit. It is no mere tourist attraction, but the source of some of the finest local products Spain has to offer. It’s also a fantastic building adorned with ceramic tiles and capped with a huge dome.
No visit to Valencia is complete without visiting the Turia Gardens. Once a riverbed, the city diverted the flow and created one of the world’s lushest and largest inner-city parks. Spend a day enjoying its picnic spots, playgrounds and bike paths. If parks do it for you, It’s just one many in Valencia.
Nightlife in Valencia
Then there is the Spanish nightlife. Like the Paella, Valencia does it in its own way and does it right.
Here you will find everything from proper old school underground nightclubs, to glitzy super clubs, pubs, and open-air terraces by the sea. There’s something for everyone who wants to play all night long.
What to see in Valencia with a hire car?
There are so many things to do in Valencia a hire car is a great thing to have. If you plan it well, you can do several of these in a day. If you have the time, knock them off your bucket list slowly. Just enjoy your time tooling around the city. That’s what hire cars are all about.
City of the Arts and Sciences
The City of the Arts and Sciences is a collection of uber-modern structures and buildings, each in its own reflecting pool. The whole exhibit can be overwhelming and somewhat surreal. Go in the evening when the sunset still plays in the reflecting pools, and the lights have come on.
The City of the Arts and Sciences project began in the mid-90s, but the site continued to develop as late as 2005. These are some genuinely huge buildings. The area houses several cultural venues and some top-rated family fun.
Check out L’Hemisfèric, with its planetarium and IMAX Theatre. It doesn’t even matter what’s playing. For plant lovers, L’Umbracle is a giant collection native Valencian plant species.
Because the whole complex can get pretty busy, save time and money by booking ahead if you plan to catch a show.
La Lonja de la Seda
La Lonja de la Seda, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a grand late-15th-century building believed to be one of the best examples of Valencian Gothic architecture standing. Beautifully preserved, it is a living testimony to Valencia’s golden age. It celebrates Valencia’’s position as one of Europe’s top cultural and trade centres.
The long name means “Silk Exchange”. This is because traders from all over Europe and the Mediterranean would gather here to strike their bargains. By all means, take the time to admire the gentle twisting columns of the Sala de Contratación, or look up at the fine detail of the gracefully vaulted ceilings.
Its fortress-like crenellated outline sits just next to the Central Market, so double up while you are there and try the freshest food that Valencia has to offer.
Barrio del Carmen
Nobody lives on architecture and history alone. So when you have had your fill take an evening drive in your hire car to the northeast side of the Old Town. Here you will find the youthful boho vibe of Barrio El Carmen. The area has been around since medieval times and sits just between the 11th-century Moorish walls and the Christian ones that went up in the 14th-century.
Barrio del Carmen is in what was a sort of religious no-man’s land. This fits in with the way the palaces in these cool, shaded alleys have been gentrified into bars, funky boutiques, nightclubs and restaurants. If you are out for the night in Valencia, Calle de Caballeros, particularly near Plaza de la Virgen, is where you will likely end up.
Jardín del Turia
Having had your share of architecture, with your head still hurting from your night out, visit Valencia’s most beautiful park in your hire car.
The stunning Jardín del Turia is literally a river of fresh air and relaxation right in the middle of the city. The park was conceived after the River Turia burst its banks in 1957, causing significant damage to the city. Because of this mishap, the river’s flow was diverted, leaving a dry riverbed through the town.
As a result, the city converted the dry riverbed into nine kilometres of vibrant, green parkland. A total of Eighteen bridges span the river of green and the oldest one dates as far back as the middle ages. The bridges give the park an unusual character. They are an integral part of its charm.
The park is a collaborative effort by several landscape architects. The resulting variety of landscapes — gardens, pine forests, orange groves and palms and paths — wind through sports facilities, play areas and fountains. There, now doesn’t that feel better?
Day trips from Valencia with a hire car
Even though there are so many things you can do in Valencia, the point of a hire car is to get off the beaten track and use your vehicular freedom to explore outside the box. Here are some suggestions to get you out and about in the countryside:
Hanging Houses of Cuenca
Cuenca, in Castile-La Mancha, is a region that became famous as the stomping grounds of Cervantes’ Don Quixote. The town is one of the best examples of how available space was hard to come by in the 15th through 18th centuries.
Cuenca is located almost dead centre between Madrid and Valencia and is a 200 km, 2-hour drive from the Mediterranean coast. The city perches precariously on top of a hill, and as the number of residents grew, the location stopped the town from spreading outward.
Refusing to give up hope, residents of Cuenca expanded upwards, and a little bit outwards.
The result was the hanging houses which cling precariously to the rocky cliffs. With the tallest at 7 or 8 floors high, they were called rascacielos,(skyscrapers). Many extended out over the edge of the hilltop overhanging the valley far.
Cuenca Spanish Museum of Abstract Arts
Hanging Houses used to be common throughout the city, but only one remains fully intact. Las Casas Colgadas, or The Hanging Houses of Colgadas, is now the location of the restaurant and the Cuenca Spanish Museum of Abstract Arts.
Cuenca is a lovely trip in a hire car, and there are many sights on the route and traditional towns where you can stop for lunch to break up the drive.
Sagunto
Because you have a hire car, you can do things you would not have thought possible, like visiting a roman ruin and logging some quality beach time in the same afternoon.
If that kind of thing appeals to you, then Sagunto is the perfect place. It is the former home to an ancient Roman settlement from around 5 B.C. and known for its Roman amphitheatre.
Despite its advanced age, the ruin still has incredible acoustics. The gorgeous beach is a bonus and easily reached. If you still want more after that, check out the Sierra Calderona Natural Park just down the road. All in all, it is said to have the finest hiking in the area.
Besides, you can drive there from Valencia in your hire car in under an hour!
Peñíscola
While the name may conjure up some strange mental images, Peñíscola is the perfect place to have your beach day away from the lovely but crowded Playa la Malvarrosa.
Head your hire car up the coast road to Peñíscola. Once there, you will find a beautiful seaside town with a lovely beach and an ancient ambience. It’s a great day trip from Valencia, and an excellent place to stop if you are heading towards Barcelona.
With powdery beaches and clear blue waves, this is the stuff of postcards. You may even experience a sense of deja vu. Being inside the ancient city walls and castle is like taking a step back in time.
The Game of Thrones producers certainly thought so, the tropical paradise of Mereen in season 6 was shot there.
It is well worth the hour and a half (142 Km) it will take to drive your car rental there.
It is easy to pay for your rental car booking in Valencia. At carhirespain.net, we accept both Visa and Mastercard online payments.
You must bring the credit card you used to make the booking to the rental desk at pickup with sufficient funds to cover your security deposit, usually your excess amount plus vat.
Your booking voucher will show all prepaid costs for your car hire in Valencia and your security deposit.
You will only have to pay additional fees for your car hire at Valencia Airport if you choose to add items to your pre-booked policy.
Refer to your booking confirmation with Carhirespain.net to confirm that your booking meets your needs before travelling, changing your booking online is always cheaper than adding items in person.
You can book your car hire in Valencia up to 15 months in advance with most car hire suppliers. If you like doing things at the last minute, you can make a reservation up to 15 minutes before your pick up if there is a car available that meets your search criteria.
It is recommended you book at least 48 hours in advance, however, especially during the peak travel season in Spain.
No, generally speaking for a car hire reservation to be modified, you will have to cancel and make a new booking as rates change daily, especially as you get nearer to you Spanish holiday dates.
Besides, Cancelling your reservation is penalty-free up to 24 hours before your rental begins.
The balance of your cancelled reservation is transferred to any new booking you make (up to 24-48 hours before the time the rental starts, depending on the company).
Remember car hire rates in Valencia increase the closer you come to your travel dates. The earlier you make your changes, the less money you will spend.
Yes, you can arrange an airport pick up for your hire car at Valencia Airport. When you book your rental car with Carhirespain.net ensure you check the airport pick up box in our search feature and select the car hire policy that best suits your needs.
You can only drive a hire car in Valencia if you have been registered as either the main driver or added to the policy as an additional driver. If you have not been added to the policy, you risk voiding any accident coverage you may have.